A different setting for today’s bike ride, Harlingen, TX. I’m here early to ride the Jalapeno 100 on Saturday and to take advantage of the summer like weather for riding before then.

Earlier today I watched two bike races, the UAE Tour and the O Gran Camiño while I ate breakfast. The weather couldn’t have been more different for those two races. The UAE Tour was sunny and around 20C while the O Gran Camiño was super cold and snowing on the last climb. The O Gran Camiño was stopped with about 22km left because of heavy snow and freezing cold. I didn’t have that problem in Harlingen. When I started my ride at 11:16 AM it was 84 degrees, fair with a south wind of 18 mph and gusts of 31 mph. By the 1:53 PM finish the temperature was 94, fair sky, and the wind was from the south at 15 mph and 24 mph gusts. The wind and temperature took a lot out of me so I should’ve started earlier before it got that intense.

I looked up a route at RWGPS that I planned the last time I came to Harlingen for the Jalapeno 100 in late February 2020. I wanted to ride a few miles longer than then. I selected the route on my Bolt computer for turn-by-turn directions. The first 6+ miles I rode on that route but I didn’t update the route to add the extra miles and the Bolt had a beeping fit wanting me to turn at every side street to get back on the route. I ignored the beeping and later in the ride when I was on Loop 499 the Bolt wanted me to make u-turns which would’ve taken me away from where I finished. I called the route Wilson Road – Combes – Loop 499.

Most of the roads were chip seal on the shoulders except for TX 107 and Loop 499 which was asphalt with some patches. It wasn’t rough enough to jar fillings out but bumpy and vibrating. No climbing but there was a short slight downhill on Loop 499 over a bridge approaching Business US77 near the end of the ride.

The wind and heat took their pound of flesh so I stopped at the Road Ranger Truck Stop in Combes at US77 to recover some at 14.8 miles. Later I stopped again for ice and water at a store on Loop 499. My CamelBak would’ve been better than the water bottle I had with me.

I ended up riding less miles than I wanted to at 24.47. My legs told me to finish or they would go on strike from the wind.

Friday I plan on starting earlier.